


I've seen your flag on the marble arch

by jedijarmarcal



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Destiny, F/M, i like when they hurt, idk - Freeform, maybe not THAT angsty? it kinda ends well maybe idfkkkk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-09
Updated: 2018-03-09
Packaged: 2019-03-28 23:22:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13914348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jedijarmarcal/pseuds/jedijarmarcal
Summary: I've always had a bone of contention when it comes to summaries: part of the fun of these things (for me) is in the not knowing what to prepare for.However.This one hurts.





	I've seen your flag on the marble arch

**Author's Note:**

> love is not a victory march

Rey closes her eyes and wills the lump in her throat to to just  _go_. She's no stranger to the way dehydration and a mouthful of sand could hurt, but this was almost sharp, jagged.

She remembers the terrific hum of light sabers, could still smell the burnt flesh of those red knights. 

Red! 

That color was a blaring siren behind her eyelids. Any doubts she had in herself about her goodness vanished as she cursed that bloody hue. Her survival instincts flooded her thoughts with the green and blues of planets she could have never imagined.

Accepting greedily the reprieve, Rey felt herself settle into a moment of contentment. Of something other than hurt.

She should have known better though, than to give into something so peaceful: there would be none of that now- not anymore.

How could she have been so wrong?

So stupid.

For weeks, the connection she had shared with Kylo Ren had felt intimate and purposeful and important- critically so- and something she could trust. When they fought? Oh, Rey's heart soared at how in sync they had been, as if they were not meant for anything else.

Elation like that had was something that she had never felt before, and she had felt jet stream winds of that same eager excitement coming from him as she basked in the summit of her personal victory.

When his words ripped into her, what could she have done otherwise to prevent the falling of her stomach into her knees? How was she to recover from such a blow? Her heart had broken in a way the naive girl she had been when abandoned on Jakku could have never understood.

Did she even have the right to feel so betrayed when they weren't even on the same side. 

But then his face had mirrored her own, and her self-pity had extended to him. Him! It was his stupid conquest to fulfill Vader's legacy that came between them, and he was so caught up in the stupid whisperings of two dead men that he could not even comprehend the screaming of her eagerness for another way. 

Because Rey had seen clearly at the end of their fight in that red room that Ren belonged at her side. She didn't know if it was with the Resistance or not, but she knew that his way was wrong. And it wasn't a romantic notion- fate rarely dealt these hands so prettily- but something deeper. 

Balance.

Centuries of Dark versus Light had culminated in the swelling of her heart only to dash against the rocky exterior of his lifetime of manipulation.

What did it mean that the Force had given her the path but stolen it from her?

Without consciously trying, she felt her subconscious reach out in the Force for him, and almost immediately felt his returning embrace.

The lump in her throat returned, but this time she swallowed  _hard_ and remembered her time on Master Luke's little planet.

Determined to sleep and put the day's events behind her, Rey curled into her bunk and imagined herself on the cliffside watching the sky deepen to purple over the crashing waves.

As sleep loomed over her, the cool hues of her make-believe sunset deepened into pinks and oranges and yellows; in the middle of it all a fiery red sun dipped lower into the ocean.

She couldn't help the smile when she felt him beside her.

"It's beautiful."

"That's the way it should be."

 

**Author's Note:**

> it's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah


End file.
